Steven Bryant

I just arrived in NY for this week's premiere of Alchemy in Silent Spaces by the Juilliard Orchestra, led by James DePreist. Concert program here.

The first rehearsal will be this afternoon at 2:30 (well, they started on it yesterday, but this will be the first time I get to hear any of it)...

I'm actually a little nervous. I just hope I didn't screw up any of the parts...

Last Thursday night (May 11th), the North Little Rock HS Band, under the direction of Bill Spainhour, held their final concert of the year. This is also the occasion in the past when they would award the Ron Bryant Scholarship to two deserving graduating seniors from the band. Since my father's passing last Fall, this has been renamed the Ron Bryant Memorial Scholarship, and was presented...

As promised, I've got a few more pics from the week to share:



Brett Lawson, myself, and Lewis Clark. Lew is the director at Ramay Jr. HS, and this is backstage at their concert last Thursday night, when they performed "Bloom."



I was sitting backstage just before the Ramay band went on, and I suddenly found myself swarmed by what appears to be the flutes and clarinets. Cool.



Earlier in the day, I...

The fourth and final day of Band Week 2006 was a great success. I thought the band was completely 'on,' and they connected with me throughout Bloom. It was a(nother) satisfying and musical performance, and the audience certainly seemed to dig it! Tyler, who laid down the crucial vibraphone solos at the beginning and end, did a great job - thanks man!

In the morning, we did a run-through and...

Today is my one day "off" in relative terms - no concert tonight. Went to Ramay Jr. HS this morning to work with Lewis Clark's group on Bloom. They sound good - in some respects this might be the hardest of the three pieces happening this week (it has fewer exposed moments than "Dusk," but is the longest of the three and requires a maturity of phrasing and sense of long-range musical arc that...

Didn't manage to post after the concert last night, but it went quite well. I took "Dusk" a little slower than we had been in rehearsal, and the band followed me wonderfully. The climax was really satisfying and powerful! I need to study the score to "Bloom" for rehearsal this morning, so I'll just offer a big "Thank you" to the band, and I wish you all the best! I really enjoyed working...

This morning I went to the high school rehearsal again (8:30, on the tail end of a powerful lightning and thunderstorm - some crazy lightning arcing through the mountains on my drive to rehearsal - I loved it).

We only had time for a single run-through, which is all I wanted to do anyway - they know the piece, and I don't like to run things into the ground. I'm looking forward to the concert...

Short post-concert recap - it was a great evening - the three bands all put on a good show and it seemed like both the bands and the audience were having a good time. The 7th-grade band did a fun tune called "Rock to the Max Mr. Sax" with the sax section out front grooving on a memorized soli part. The 8th-grade band did a piece called "Engines of Resistance" by Larry Clark which had some...

Friday, my brother and I took a quick trip over to Memphis to visit my old friend Mac, and for some BBQ and music at the Beale Street Music Festival (happened to see Bryan Adams and Train, the latter featuring an unexpected keyboard solo using Clavinet run through a "wah" pedal followed by an abrasive-as-hell mono-synth lead patch, which was worth the price of admission alone).

Headed back to...

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of working with Bill Spainhour and the North Little Rock High School band on Dusk. This is as close I can get to "my" old high school (this one and mine were merged into one huge school the year after I graduated, so my actual school no longer exists). This is also the band room I basically grew up in - it was where my father was band director throughout...

I've just returned from East Lansing, MI, where I had a fantastic week. The performance of "Dusk" was really, really, good - it was the slowest I've heard, and the first time I think any conductor has trusted him- or herself to take it at the right tempo, including myself. Verena brought out an incredibly heartfelt performance from the band, and I'm extremely pleased with how the whole thing...

I'm in East Lansing this week. The Symphony Band, under Dr. Wesley Broadnax, will be rehearsing and making an impromptu recording of Rise this afternoon, and then tomorrow night Verena Mösenbichler and the MSU Campus Band will perform Dusk on their final concert of the year. Thursday, I speak to a couple of seminars about this whole composing thing I do. I'll try to snag some pictures in the...